A shopping center in Montville that will house a Home Depot, among other stores, had to shut down construction Tuesday because state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal won a temporary injunction after a dam and a retaining wall on the property failed and a mudslide came within feet of a nearby home.

Blumenthal won an injunction from Hartford Superior Court that says that the firms involved – Home Depot USA, developer Second Family and construction companies Manafort Bros., Antrim Development and Nittany Construction – must bring the project into compliance with state law and begin repairing the property, the dam and retaining wall and affected homes. The companies also must hire an engineer to inspect the detention basin and earthen embankment and report back to the state Department of Environmental Protection. The engineer also will inspect the dam once every six hours during every future rain event. Within the next seven days, the companies have to come up with an evacuation and road-closing plan in case the dam fails again and remove all the sediment from the adjacent properties.

Within two weeks, the companies must take measures to divert storm water from the top of the slope on the shopping center site and take measures to control the flow of sediment from the site.

‘Horrendous Mess’

According to Blumenthal, the companies also failed to secure the proper permit for the dam that gave way during the recent heavy rains. Some homes had to be evacuated after the mudslide and Route 32 was temporarily closed.

“Our action halts all work at the site until the owners and the construction firms take steps to repair the damage done to homes and environment, and follow laws that protect our health,” Blumenthal said in a prepared statement. “This company brazenly disregarded state law, constructing an illegal dam, failing to properly protect against flooding and mud slides, and endangering health and safety Â… and my office will hold them accountable. They must clean up this horrendous mess and repair damage to the environment Â… My personal inspection of the construction indicates larger, long-term design and construction problems that need to be investigated and addressed.”

Blumenthal was scheduled to go back to Hartford Superior Court yesterday to extend the injunction.

A call to Manafort Bros. was not returned by press time.